The Last Organic Outpost

I had the most interesting adventure the other day.  I visited a local urban farm and selected my hand picked vegetables for the week!  The Last Organic Outpost is a not-for-profit urban farm project in Houston's Fifth Ward (Emile Community Farm) and Third Ward (Live Oak Outpost).   The project was started in 1999 as Joe's personal project and bloomed into a not-for-profit local initiative to teach Houstonians about farming and to provide local, fresh produce to an under served urban area.  Now the Last Organic Outpost hosts dinners, movie nights, cooking, agricultural, building and irrigation classes.  The project assists with local food pantries and schools.

Marcella and Farmer Joe run the farms and are super friendly hosts.  I arrived at the farm and Marcella promptly introduced herself and everyone else there, told me the history of the project and gave me a tour of the farm. Marcella hand picked my vegetables and invited me to all the upcoming events.  She introduced to several new vegetables and gave me some handy gardening tips.  I left with two Huge bags of produce that included:  kale, kohlrabi, mixed salad greens, romaine lettuce, beets, and onions.  Regrettably, I did not have my camera with me, so the photos are from the Last Organic Outpost website.

Since I have never had kohlrabi (German turnip) before, I followed Marcella's advice for cooking this delicious root vegetable.  I stir fried the tops and the vegetable (which must be peeled) in a little bit of Earth Balance butter and served it up.  It was a new adventure and it was delicious!